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Lesson Learned Hard Way

This is my first year keeping bees. Have 3 hives now and have been feeling pretty good about myself checking supers without gloves or long sleeves.

Today I checked supers on 2 different hives without any trouble. The 2nd is the one I posted about on here last week having a lot of brood in the super that I was going to leave for winter.

All the brood had hatched with the exception of just a few still emerging bees. So, I thought I would remove the super and look into the brood box. It was packed really tight and when I pulled the end rack out I rolled a bunch of bees out and man did they work on me. Got several stings on both hands and arms.

RE: assembly time record

Oh, I don't know about that. I had a hive that was already pretty mean. I set out to find and pinch the queen.

I suited up for max protection and I tore the whole hive open. I had the two boxes separated, one on the ground that I had already gone through and was going through the lower box when a freak sunshower went by.

Once my suit was wet they can sting right through it. I got stung like 25 times in the 30 seconds it took me to reassemble that hive.

Looking back it was really funny, but it sure hurt that day. Video would have been awesome.

Reminds me of the time or 2 that I've dropped a deep frame full of bees while inspecting it. Last time it happened, I was wearing my straw hat and wrap-around safety glasses with reading glasses over those. My girls showed mercy and didn't even one of them sting me, it was my lucky day! It pretty near caused my first heart attack tho!!!

"A good day is when no one shows up and you don't have to go anywhere." - Burt Shavitz (Burt's Buzz)

Early this spring, it was hot. In my truck I had my old head gear. Figured I'd grab the new one..so walking back, I unzipped my suit for some fresh air. Well, after putting on the new hat and zipping it on, I forgot to zip the suit back up. Uh OH

After getting into a couple brood chambers, I sensed that the buzzing was closer to my ears than it had ever been...and there were BEES INSIDE WITH ME!!! Well, the headgear came off pretty fast and I made a break away from the bees....WOW! Only got stung a few times in neck and ears (lobes). I will never forget the feeling at the very instant I realized what had happened.

I suited up the other day, was all sealed and tied, and went out to start working my hives. Every so often I would here a buzz that didnt sound quite right, it was really angry, more so than the other bees, but I didnt see anything out of the ordinary. I had been working about 45 min when I heard it again, closer to my ear than it should have been, thought maybe it was on the screen of my veil. I turned my head to look and this black thing landed on my eye glasses Luckily I was in between hives because I FLEW (and I mean flew) away as fast as I could, untying my veil as I went. There was a big ole black wasp in there with me, inches from my face! My hat/veil had been sitting near a window in my garage, apparently the wasp had been in there when I put it on! All that time in my veil with me and it never stung me! Whew, I was lucky that day!